I never compared my version of this song to Chet's but I've always thought that Chet's version resolved to the Key of B major. I don't think that key is normal for western music but I don't really know. To this day when I play it (mostly to keep my fingers nimble), it resolves to the most unused key in music. Thanks in advance! It's strange but many times I just like to learn old Chet arrangements from what I remember in my head. I don't possess perfect pitch but I like to work tunes out in my head and through my fingers although I had to ask the late Paul Yandell which key "Main Street Breakdown" is in I never tried to play it as I gave up. It's beyond my ability!

Rich, I resolve it to the key of A. There was no particular reason other than that it allowed for the right combination of open strings and fretted notes. I was never trying to match it to any recording.

Thanks guys. Back when i first learned the tune I had great difficulty with the single note bridge part. I tried to use all thumb picking which I was never able to do very well. Years later when I saw Jerry Reed's thumbpick and index finger method I worked on it again and that technique made it much easier to pick that part. All of my single note playing now is using that method.

Doug it seems any of the techniques I know I learned by the time I was 30, not to discourage you. I don't think these days I can learn anything new in the way of techniques such as the super lick (I never even tried it). I believe that Chet used the thumb index finger single notes on the tunes you mentioned and "Yakety Axe".

I do admit that bad habits / techniques are really hard to break. REAL hard. Not that it can't be done. But t's hard.

Years and years and years ago, I took some classical instruction from a classical guitarist/teacher. The FIRST thing he did was point out my bad technique habits and try to help me correct them. I say "try," because I'm not sure if he made a lot of progress, lol.

But I tried because I was paying him a goodly sum, and I wanted to get my money's worth. Had a family to raise and mouths to feed, and every dollar counted.

Now I got myself to raise and MY mouth to feed, and guess what? Every dollar counts! Lol, but I digress.

But yeah, bad habits are hard to break once they are ingrained..

Like I said, I got a sax now, and I want to learn, but # 1 I have NO idea where to even start, and # 2 I'm afraid that without pro instruction I might develop bad technique habits that, as with guitar, will be dang near impossible to break further on down the line.

And then there is Brent Mason who uses his thumb and index finger, or even thumb and any combination of the others, and manages to sound like he's using a flat pick the entire time! That's pretty impressive with a Telecaster and all of those hot licks and yet maintaining that "Tele sound"!

Ya'll were talking about two finger runs from Chet. It's amazing to me how Chet could do those thumb and index finger runs so cleanly and with a full sound for each note while still playing it fast. Sounds like they are scale runs at times. If I'm remembering correctly there are a lot of those nice runs on the two albums Chet did with Les Paul. Took me a long time to figure out that sound was a two-finger run.ThanksSteve

Steve, Tommy Jones used to show me even 3 finger runs along with the thumb! When each finger can take a longer break before it's "turn" comes around again, it can make a significant difference but it also seems to have to be planned out in advance!